Session4

materialityJULY 6 - 23

COURSES

Dead or alive!

Glassblowing, Mixed Media, Painting, Sculpture, Coldworking

Students will combine and approach glass as if they’ve never worked with it before, smashing hot-glass elements together with a plethora of mixed media, blurring the line between fine art and craft. The class will explore the process (liquid to solid, mobility to rigor mortis) and discover similar properties in rubbers, silicones, plastics, and epoxies. Hot-glass inclusions, mold blowing, enameling, and coldworking processes will also be covered. Students will work on individual and group projects in stages of process: Life—Hot Shop, Death—Annealing, Embalming—Material Application, Funeral—Exhibition.

C / ALL LEVELS

DOREEN GARNER

Doreen Garner is a Brooklyn-based artist originally from Philadelphia. Her work identifies, extracts, and exploits the tissues that bind the sexual and the grotesque, specifically in medical exploitation of the black body. She received her BFA in glass from Tyler School of Art, Temple University, and her MFA from Rhode Island School of Design. Garner is a practicing tattoo artist and master of mixed materials.

It is important to know your materials and to approach the challenge of creation with a sensitivity all one's own. The class will seek to create sculptural expressions through a number of methods: glass blowing, working directly with hot lumps of glass, blown and solid cold core techniques, bit work, fire polishing, the garage and teamwork. Observation, drawing, deconstruction, logic, physics, intuition and practice are the basis for mastering bare bones methods for sculpting glass.

B / ADVANCED

Scott Darlington

Shunji Omura

Shunji Omura is Professor of Glass at Musashino Art University. He studied glass making at Tokyo Glass Art Institute then became a staff member at Niijima Glass Art Center. In 1994, Omura established Omura Glass Studio outside of Tokyo. Scott Darlington is the Glass StudioManager at Pratt Fine Arts Center in Seattle. He earned his BFA at the Appalachian Center for Crafts and his MFA from The Ohio State University and spent 4 years in Japan at the Toyama City Institute of Glass Art.

Students will discover what happens in an environment that encourages experimentation and values accidents and glitches as sources of inspiration. Combine mold blowing, sandcasting, and 3-D printing while discovering how glass and 3-D print technologies can work together. This course will build skills that students can take with them by sharing methods that are inexpensive or free and available through online communities. 3-D print and software are filled with the potential to open up new possibilities in glass art.

C / INTERMEDIATE

TIM BELLIVEAU

Tim Belliveau, a co-founder of Bee Kingdom Glass Collective, lives and works in Montreal, Quebec. His work, which focuses on blending fine craft techniques with 3-D print technology, challenges the idea of handmade objects. Belliveau is completing an MFA at Concordia University and has been accepted as a 2017 resident at the European Ceramic Work Centre. He has exhibited his work across Canada and in Germany, Greece, Korea, and Turkey.

Explore the physical properties of borosilicate glass that encompass expansion, contraction, viscosity, clarity, devitrification, cleavage, annealing, tempering, and other facets inherent in this low-expansion glass. We will look to material issues of life-cycle, futility, failure, and death as subjects to explore and riff off of for demonstrations. Students will be encouraged to merge an understanding of the material with their concepts and ideas to drive the direction of their projects.

C / INTERMEDIATE

MATT ESKUCHE

Matt Eskuche began flameworking in 1998 after metalsmithing for several years, and has been paying close attention to what is going on in the pipe-art movement. Eskuche’s work has allowed him to practice traditional flameworking techniques while exploring concepts related to consumption and the life-cycles of products of mass-consumption. He has taught classes at national and international schools including Corning, Penland, and the Pittsburgh Glass Center. His work is exhibited in galleries and museums throughout the country.

Explore reproduction on and off the press bed using glass plates and digital fabrication processes. Starting with digital files, students will explore the possibilities of etching imagery into glass plates in the BotLab and Cold Shop; they will then run the plates through the printing press and create inked impressions on paper. Demonstrations will cover ideation, file preparation, plate manipulation, and printing methods while building digital literacy in a contemporary craft context.

C / ALL LEVELS

HANNAH SMITH

Hannah Smith is an artist and printmaker. Her practice, which combines photographic imagery with digital and traditional processes, addresses notions of replication and understanding. Introduced to glass through vitreography and coldworking, Smith has worked with Pilchuck artists in residence in the production of prints for the permanent collection. She also has been awarded several residencies, including one at Pyramid Atlantic Art Center, Hyattsville, Maryland.

ARTISTS IN RESIDENCE

TAM VAN TRAN

Tam Van Tran’s use of mixed media and dense layers of texture in collage and sculpture create complex, organic works that draw on a rich history of experiences. Born in Vietnam, he studied painting and received his BFA from Pratt Institute, Brooklyn. Tran’s work was featured in the 2004 Whitney Biennial at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, and is held in museum collections nationwide. He has participated in numerous national and international exhibitions.

Rande Cook (Kwakwaka’wakw) was born in Alert Bay, BC. He carries two chieftainships, the Hamatam/Seagull and Gigalgam from the ancient ancestor Kwanusila/Thunderbird. Traveling and exhibiting throughout the world bolstered his desire to push the boundaries of traditional works, such as ceremonial masks and art of the potlatch, with performance, carving, photography, and painting. His knowledge, hertitage, and experience create provocative works that challenge viewers.

Pilchuck, by design, preserves its focus on art and learning by maintaining an intimate educational environment. For this reason campus is open to visitors only on special occasions. See our events page for more information.

Pilchuck does not discriminate on the basis of gender, sexual orientation, race, religion, nationality or ethnic origin in employment or in artistic or educational programs.